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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Work Well Worth Saving,
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This review is from: Darwin's Century: Evolution and the Men Who Discovered It (Paperback)
This is the story of the development and refinement of evolutionary thought in the Nineteenth Century. The author allows a little slop into the end of the Eighteenth Century with such as Hutton and Buffon, and a bit into the Twentieth with Alfred Russell Wallace's last years, but basically this is the story of how the medieval view of the Great Chain of Being coming into sudden being along with the earth 6000-odd years ago evolved into an altogether grander but not-remotely-Biblical view of time, geology, life, and change.Charles Darwin is, of course, the centerpiece of such a discussion, but by no means crowds out consideration of other thinkers and workers. In terms of space, Darwin does not take up terribly much of the book, but many of the ideas and discoveries made before him are highlighted because of the use he is to make of them, and the loss of Mendel's work is seen as ironic because it was not there when Darwin needed it. It seems to be Eiseley's position that Darwin was not making a leap that others could not make, or had not made, but that, rather, he was positioned to carry the new paradigm of natural selection through an opposition that could not combat his thorough preparation and his dedicated cadre of younger naturalists. The time was ripe, and Darwin struck. It is ironic that he was, in later editions of his book, forced to revert to rather Lamarkian explanations of organic change because of the physicists. They just wouldn't give him an Earth old enough to allow his leisurely form of natural selection by the pruning of occasional random variations to create, eventually, the great variety of life. After Darwin was pruned the story goes on, of course, and Eiseley mentions the work of the Germans in cytology and heredity, the rediscovery of Mendel, and Wallace's speculations about the brain. This book was written in 1958, but Loren Eiseley anticipates, to a certain extent, the evolutionary psychology that is now explaining so much about the human mind. And he weighs in on the side of free will: finally, we must become less impressed with our technology and begin to grapple with the questions that should interest a creature that can look at itself-the basic questions of morality and the meaning of life. It is fascinating to know what we are, but we must ask what we can become. This book is well worth reading (I've read it twice) for the compelling story and the fine prose style. Eiseley was a naturalist and paleontologist as well as an essayist of great evocative power. Here he proves himself a fine historian as well: he seems to have read everything that impinges on the story he is telling, and given us a clear view of a fascinating period in science.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Darwin's Discovery in historical context,
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This review is from: Darwin's Century: Evolution and the Men Who Discovered It (Paperback)
Anthropologist Loren Eiseley is best known for his poetic essays on evolution, biology, and human nature._Darwin's Century_ may be a leap for fans of this work. It's a scholarly work, written while Eiseley was wearing his Professor hat instead of his Philosopher cap. It's a comprehensive (but very readable) look at the intellectual climate in which Charles Darwin was educated and scentific traditions of the time. Like any good history of science, _Darwin's Century_ clears away a lot of the mythological gleam surrounding Darwin's great realization. It shows us that, despite the genuine controversy the publication of the theory engendered, that _evolution evolved_. The seeds of the idea were all around. Indeed, much of the ideological "flavor" we associate with evolution arises not from the theory itself, but were inherited from these ur-notions, such as the Great Chain of Being and Malthus's writings. Put this one on your list if you enjoy the work of writers like Stephen Jay Gould and Freeman Dyson.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Intelligent Explanation Regarding 19th Century Science,
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This review is from: Darwin's Century: Evolution and the Men Who Discovered It (Paperback)
Loren Eiseley's DARWIN'S CENTURY is an interesting survey of the men whose scientific investigations led to advances in studies in biology and, interestingly enough, physics. Eiseley presents a readable account of the complex background to Darwin's work, and Eiseley examines the Darwin's contemporaries and those benefitted from his work as well as those who enhanced it.Eiseley presents Darwin's work with the 19th century intellectual background. The book makes clear that Darwin's work leading to the his theory of evolution was not an isolated venture devoid of other scientific work. One must note that there signficances studies in geology, and with the rapid industrialization in Europe and the United States, the mining industries led not only to the extraction of natural resources but the discovery of the remains of extinct species. Charles Darwin was not the only one who noticed the possibilities extinct species. However, he was one of the first to carefully investigate why species survived. His work led to the realization that within surviving species there were noticable differences in color, habits, etc. This led to Darwin's ORIGINS OF THE SPECIES which was published in 1859. Darwin may have had this published book "prematurely" in hopes of prempting others who were doing similiar work. Eiseley's explanation of Gregor Mendal's (1822-1884)pioneer work in genetics is a clear explation of both Mendal's work and the historical importance of genetics which helped the Darwinists in that it gave them a theorhetically mechanism for changes in species. The advances in the study of genetics in recent history indicates just how important Mendal's work was. Eiseley also gives a readable explation of some of the developments in atomic physics. His explation of the importance of the Curries-Laborde experiments in 1903 which proved that radium maintains its temperatures above the surroundings was so important to studies in astronomy and geology. Such work help astronomers develop radio telescopes and a means of examining "space debris." Developments in atomic physics were important in examining the astronomical age of the sun which undermined Kelvin's conception of this star. Geologists benefitted from atomic physics which helped with the invention of the atomic clock which enabled geologists to push the age of the earth back to millions and eventually billions of years. Both genetics atomic physics gave the evolutionists the means of change and the time they needed to explain evolution. DARWIN'S CENTURY is an important book in explaining biological theories and evolution. Before one engages in the childish debates about intelligent design, this book would assist anyone to have a calm, rational view of Darwin and others whose work was so important and certainly above the childish debate of what some try to pass as science. Rather than popularize one side or the other in intelligent design debate, Eiseley's book would give a dispassionate, readable view of the actual science involved.
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